The background art for the present invention is disclosed, for instance, by Patent Documents 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-120553) and 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-318180).
It is an object of the invention disclosed by Patent Document 1, to properly mark a video highlight scene that is desired by a user. In accomplishing the object, there is provided a recorder/player comprising: a brightness level detection section 21 for detecting the brightness level of a video signal; an audio level detection section 19 for detecting the audio level of an audio signal; an input section 25 for specifying the brightness level marking conditions for a video signal and/or the audio level marking conditions for an audio signal; a control section 23 for exercising control to mark a playback position when the detection results produced by the detection sections 19, 21 meet the marking conditions specified by the input section 25; a marking setup section 27 for outputting a marking signal in accordance with instructions from the control section 23; and a recording section 15 for recording the marking on a recording medium 31 in accordance with the marking signal.
It is an object of the invention disclosed by Patent Document 2 to automatically set a chapter at a user-desired position without user intervention for dubbing. In accomplishing such object, there is provided a method comprising the steps of: shooting a still image and inserting the shot still image into a desired position for chapter setup when a digital video camera is used for shooting; causing a hard disk recorder to compress video data with an MPEG encoder at a variable bit rate and record the video data on a hard disk when shot video is to be dubbed from the camera to the hard disk recorder; comparing the bit rate against a threshold value; when the bit rate is lower than the threshold value for a predetermined or longer period, judging that the video is a still image; and setting a chapter at a position of the still image.